Tag Archives: miso

Gentle readers, in this season of a million germs, few things are more delicious than a bright gingery soup full of greens and carrots. Let us pause to say, I love ramen, I love noodles, and I love the little shops that sell those things. But I don’t live next door to any of them, and the habit gets expensive. And when I’m feeling a touch under the weather, I don’t feel like a fuss.

Enter a homemade version. After a bit of googling, and combining recipes, here’s what I devised. This is flexible, work with what you’ve got in the house, substitute to your taste, with a couple of caveats: 1) the miso paste is worth finding as it adds a depth of flavor; 2) I love soba noodles in this, but you can sub (but buckwheat!), just cook the noodles separately!

The goal here is hot soup that is flavorful, filling, pretty healthy, and can open your sinuses without killing you in the process. Enjoy.

In a large soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. When hot but not sputtering, sauté the ginger, shallots, and carrots, stirring frequently.

When carrots are a little soft and the mixture is fragrant, add the chicken stock. Heat until it bubbles.

Take out a cup of the soup liquid, add the miso paste to it, stir to mix well, add back to the soup pot.

Add the greens, cutting the heat off as they start to wilt.

Taste the soup at this point. If you’d like, add soy sauce or red pepper flakes to adjust the flavor. Depending on how salty the stock was, you may not need to do much.

In individual serving bowls, put a portion of soba noodles, and ladle the soup over them. Top with soft-boiled eggs cut in half. Serve immediately with soy sauce and spicy things (red pepper flakes or Siracha) so people can adjust to their level of tolerance.